Oh my. I have another tank now…

[Vicki]

So, my husband and I had a little squabble last night. And today he came home with a little 4 gal cube tank he knows I’ve been eyeing, and a beautiful Betta male to live in it. The problems are:

1) I’ve no idea how to take care of this tank (I wasn’t there to get instructions for this tank that was set up and running at the store, (sigh)) But I’ll figure that part out. The second problem is
2) It doesn’t come with a heater, which I absolutely need in my house. Does anyone have any recommendations for an inconspicuous heater? This tank is lovely, I’d like to keep it that way to the extent possible.
3) In keeping my Betta (Rambo) warm, I’ve had him bagged and floating in my ToN, where of course, he’s showing off his fins to keep everyone else away. But all it’s doing is luring Reba in his direction (Reba is the lovely Betta female I have living in there. And yes, I name my unique fish. Sue me.) I guess my question is can a male and female live together or will they get tired of each other? I don’t care if they make babies, and I don’t care if the babies live, I just care about Rambo and Reba. If I’m going to end up separating them, I’d rather just not put them together to start with. 

[JE47]

To answer question three generally speaking it is not a good idea to put male and female bettas together because they will attack each other the only exception is if you where attempting to breed them which is a whole other process and still you wouldn't keep the bettas together indefinitely. Unfourtenly I don't know any good small heaters hopefully someone else does. Keep us updated though on this tank and betta's adventure 🙂

[Galabar]

I do currently have a male and female together in a 40 breeder tank (with lots of other fish).  They may be Ok, but you'll want to watch them closely.

How big is the tank and what other fish do you have in it?  

As for a heater, this works well for me and is fairly small: https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Submersible-Aquarium-Electronic-Thermostat/dp/B000OQO69Q

 

Does the 4 gallon have a filter of some sort?  This is the actually tank that was set up and running in the store?  If you don't let it dry out, you'll have a cycled tank that you can use immediately...

Edited October 21, 2023 by Galabar

[Vicki]

On 10/20/2023 at 7:10 PM, Galabar said:

I do currently have a male and female together in a 40 breeder tank (with lots of other fish).  They may be Ok, but you'll want to watch them closely.

How big is the tank and what other fish do you have in it?  

As for a heater, this works well for me and is fairly small: https://www.amazon.com/Tetra-Submersible-Aquarium-Electronic-Thermostat/dp/B000OQO69Q

 

Does the 4 gallon have a filter of some sort?  This is the actually tank that was set up and running in the store?  If you don't let it dry out, you'll have a cycled tank that you can use immediately...

I decided that I’d rather just leave the male separate from the females. The ladies are doing well with their tank mates and I’d rather not mess with the community thats working out well.  The new tank is 4 gallons and it’ll have no other fish in it - just Rambo. Who may be renamed Lonely Romeo. We’ll see, haha!

Thanks for the recommendation on the tetra heater, I’ll check into it. I just needed a place to start.  And yes - the little tank has a filter that was up and running in the store. I filled it up with distilled water (it probably holds 5+ gallons because it wasn’t empty when he carried it in and it took 4 gallons) and heated it up enough to not send a fish into shock, then plopped that little fella in there. He’s checking out the pagoda and fall landscape as we speak. 

 

[Galabar]

The heater you have seems to be fine.  However, the little preset Tetra heater will be a bit more low profile.

As for distilled water, you might use tap water instead with an aquarium water conditioner.  It would have (at least) some of the salts and minerals that are needed for the fish and your nitrogen cycle.

 

That tank looks like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Life-15-Aquarium-MCR-Light/dp/B0846C1TT2

That should be fine for a betta.